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In Memoriam

Robert Marcy, 1928–2013

Robert Marcy, 84, Christiansted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, died Feb. 15, 2013, at a local hospital. He was born July 30, 1928, in the Panama Canal Zone, and grew up in New York. He earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the Pratt Institute in 1946 and served in the U.S. Army from 1950-52.

Moving to Michigan, he worked as an engineer and received a master’s from Wayne State University, and later to the Los Angeles area to work in the aerospace industry. He retired in 1983 and moved to St. Croix, where in 1987 he met his wife, Frankie Jo “Jody” Marcy. Both are FFRF members.

“Following his instructions and staying true to his atheism, Bob had a moving secular burial at sea,” writes Jody. “In the afternoon at an open-air restaurant, family and friends met for a celebration of his life. He will be missed.” Survivors also include two daughters, Renee, a clinical psychologist, and Susan, director of a physical therapy clinic; a son, Geoffrey, a UC-Berkeley astronomy professor; a stepdaughter, Stacy; two grandchildren and three step-grandchildren. (Geoffrey and two colleagues notably discovered 70 out of the first 100 extrasolar planets. He received the 2009 Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization from Wonderfest.)